ricide and murderer of my daughter. I would most willingly have facrificed my own life to preferve her honour; but the tyrant would have deprived her of that precious treafure; and pity, therefore, rendered me cruel. The hope alone of revenging her death, by your affiftance, prevented my following her to the grave."

The foldiers, affected by this fpeech, promised to fecond him in all his enterprizes; and their refentment increafing on reflection, they refolved to deftroy the Decemvirate, and to punish all the Decemviri, as accomplices in the crime of their colleague. And, looking upon their authority, as from that inftant unlawful, they took up arms, feized their enfigns, and directed their march towards Rome. The Decemviri endeavoured in vain to top them; they answered, that they would go to the relief of their fellow-citizens, and fet their country at liberty. When they arrived at Rome, and were entering the city, they affured their relations and friends, as they paffed along, that they were come with no other view than to destroy tyranny. In fhort, they traverfed the city without quitting their ranks, marched to Mount Aventine, and refufed to difperfe, unless the Decemvirati were demolished. The Decemviri upon this were obliged to refign their power; and confuls, and tribunes of the people, were chofen. Virginius was placed at the head of the latter he cited Appius to juftice, preffed earnestly for his being punifhed, and had him conducted to prifon. Appius, dreading the punishment due to his crimes, put an end to his own life, according to the hiftorian Titus Livius. The rest of the Decemviri were banished from Rome, and tranquillity was reftored to the republic. Thus the

Romans, by revenging the death of Virginia, recovered their liberty.

HEIDEGGER.
[Communicated by Eliza.]

IT is faid that the famous Heidegger's countenance was pe culiarly unpleafing, from an 'unufual harshness of features; he was, however, the first to joke on his own uglinefs, and he once laid a wager with the earl of Chesterfield, that within a certain given time his lordfhip would not be able to produce fo hideous a face in all London; after ftrict fearch, a woman was found, whofe features were at first fight thought ftronger than Heidegger's; but upon clapping her head-dress upon himfelf, he was univerfally allowed to have won the wager. Jolly, a well-known taylor, carrying his bill to a noble duke, his grace, for evafion, faid,-" D-n your ugly face; I never will pay you till you bring me an uglier fellow than yourself." Jolly bowed and retired, wrote a letter, and fent it by a fervant to Heidegger, faying," His grace wifhed to fee him the next morning on particular bufinefs." Heidegger attended, and Jolly was there to meet him, and in confequence, as foon as Heidegger's visit was over, Jolly received the cafh.

Being once at a fupper with a large company, when a question was debated which nationalist of Europe had the greatest ingenuity; to the furprife of all prefent, he claimed that character for the Swifs; and appealed to himself for the truth of it. "I was born a Swiss," said he, "and came to England without a farthing, where I have found means to gain five thousand pounds a-year, and to fpend it. Now I defy the mot able Englishman to go to Switzerland, and either to gain that income, or to fpend it there." Hei

degger

OF THE LATE DREADFUL EARTHQUAKES AT MESSINA.

[From Hill's Journey through Sicily and Calabria.]

On the fifth day of February, 1783, an unpropitious day, and ever to be had in remembrance by the beautiful Meflina, about forty-eight minutes past eleven in the morning, the earth began to fhake, at firft flightly, then with fuch force, fuch bellowing, and with fuch various and irregular fhocks that the motion was fimilar to the rolling of the fea*.

* From this motion many perfons were feized with giddinefs and vomiting, and the very birds were fo affected, that they fuffered themselves to be taken by the hand.

The fame phenomenon was observed in

The walls gave way on every fide, knocked together, and crumbled to pieces; the roofs were toft into the air, the floors fhattered, the vaults broken, and the strongest arches di vided. By the force of three or four fhocks, which fucceeded each other without a moment's intermiffion, many houfes were reduced to ruin, many palaces thrown down, and churches and steeples levelled with the ground. At the fame time a long fiffure was made in the earth upon the quay, and in an adjoining hill, while another part of the coaft was covered by waves. At that inftant a vast cloud like afhes rofe furioufly from the horizon in the north-weft, reached the zenith, and defcended in the oppofite quarter. It grew dark at the moment of the concuffion, extended its dimenfions, and almoft obfcured the whole hemifphere . At the fame time alfo appeared upon the tops of the houses and palaces that were falling to pieces, a fudden and tranfient flame, like thofe lightnings that glance from the fummer clouds, leaving behind it a fulphureous smell t

The wretched inhabitants now left their houses in the greatest terror and confufion, calling upon God with piteous cries for fuccour, and running to and fro about the streets, not knowing whither they should flee. In the mean while the buildings on each fide were falling upon them, and the earth almoft continually trembling under their feet, fo that in the thort fpace of three minutes they were almost all collected together in the fquares and open places of the city, under the dreadful apprehenfions of inftant death. Every eye was bathed with tears, and every heart palpitated with fear, while they the three fucceeding fhocks, that com pleted the deftruction of the city.

The fame was feen in feveral parts of Calabria, and has likewife been remarked in former earthquakes.

experienced

experienced an addition to their mifery by being expofed to the vio lence of a tempeftuous wind, at tended with torrents of hail and rain. It is impoffible for the pencil of the moft ingenious painter to delineate, or for the pen of the most able writer zo defcribe, the horror and confufion of these wretched people. Each one fought for fafety in flight, and many in feeking it met with death. Others were buried alive under the falling houfes*, others hung upon the beams, others upon the thresholds of the windows and balconies, from whence by means of ropes and ladders they with difficulty efcaped with their lives, and others miferably perifhed, either under the ftones and rubbish of their own dwellings, or from the buildings which fell upon them as they paffed through the Streets.

They who escaped unhurt, fpent the rest of the day in preparing a place of fhelter against the approaching night. Some little ill-built cabins, compofed of furniture taken from the ruins, were raised in the fpace of a few hours, within which they lay together in promifcuous companies upon the bare ground.

The earth in the mean time continued to flake inceffantly, with a noife fimilar to a furious canonading, which feemed to proceed from within its bowels. Sometimes the fhocks were weak, fometimes ftrong, and fo continued till midnight, when with a most tremendous noife the fhaking affumed a redoubled fury, and threw down all thofe edifices that had refifted the former flocks. Then fell part of the walls of the cathedral, * Rofa Santagelo, aged ninety-feven, was dug out of the ruins at Catania, in the year 1693. She was again buried by this earthquake at Messina, and again preferved alive.

+ The greater part of the ftudents, who had been immured by the falling of the buildings at the first shock, were now fet at liberty, and escaped unhurt.

The whole number of perfons that loft

the magnificent fteeple, two hundred and twenty-five palms in height, part of the great hofpital, the feminary of the priests, the remainder of the ftudent's colleget, the front of the palaces upon the quay, many churches, convents and monafteries, together with multitudes of private houfes. At the fame time the fea rofe with an extraordinary roaring to a vaft height, overflowed a long tract of land near a little lake called Il Pantanello, and carried back with it fome poor cottages that were there erected, together with all the men, animals, and veffels it met with in its paffage, leaving upon the land, which had been overthrown, a great quantity of fifh of various kinds.

From twelve o'clock of the afore faid fifth of February to the midnight following, the fhocks were fo frequent, that they fucceeded each other without any interval longer than fifteen minutes, and continued much in the fame manner till about three o'clock on the evening of the feventh, when the whole mine was fprung at once, and the last stroke given to the already-ruined Meffina. A cloud of duft that darkened the air rose from the falling city, and in this, more than in any of the former earthquakes, was felt a variety of motions undulatory, vertical, &c. which fhattered the walls to pieces, deftroyed many buildings from their very foundations, and, as if pounded in a mortar, fpread them over the furface of the earth .

Some few edifices that were founded upon rocks in the upper part of the city, are ftill ftanding, but they are for the most part so cracked and their lives at Meffina, amounted to fix hundred and feventeen, besides which, many others were wounded in a terrible manner. Two children, a boy and girl, continued feven days under the ruins, and were then found alive; and it is reported of another, that he recovered after having been confined a ftill longer time. Some Guineafowls fubfifted without food feventeen days, and two mules twenty-four.

damaged,